Six Hurt in Mississippi Church Van Crash

Monday, August 22, 2011

BALDWYN, Miss. (AP) — A church van carrying adult soccer team members overturned on a northern Mississippi road Sunday afternoon and injured six people, including three young girls and a teenager apparently related to team members, authorities said.

A 7-year-old girl's arm was so severely injured that she was sent from North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo to Le Bonheur Children's Hospital in Memphis, said Trooper Ray Hall, a spokesman for the Mississippi State Highway Patrol. He did not know details of the injury.

He said the van belonging to Oakland Baptist Church in Corinth carried 15 passengers when it overturned at U.S. 45 and County Road 6011 north of Baldwyn. Two adult passengers, a 16-year-old, a 2-year-old and a 10-year-old were being treated in Tupelo, Hall said. He did not know their genders, but church member Jeff Robbins said the three youngest were girls.

Hospital officials said they could not give condition reports without names.

The van was taking the team to a match in Hamilton, Ala., as part of the church's Hispanic ministry when a rear tire blew out, said Robbins, a member of the church's transportation committee. He said he drove nine unhurt members back to Corinth, about 30 miles north of Baldwyn, and another van took some others to the hospital about 20 miles south of Baldwyn.

"The van looks bad. It's a miracle that no one was killed," he said.

Hamilton is about 60 miles southeast of Corinth, but about 90 miles away by highway.

Robbins said the injured children all were girls, likely sisters or children of the players, whom he described as in their 20s and 30s.